Always the Same Man
by Random Ravings
Summary: One version what I hope to happen for the 50th Anniversary. May add more.
1. Chapter 1

**A short ficlet, or maybe a prologue to something longer, depending on response. Hopes for the 50th anniversary. Or at least one version of them.**

He saw her. After all those years, after all the heart break, after the regeneration, loosing beautiful Amelia Pond and Rory the Roman. The Doctor straightened his bowtie and took a nervous gulp of air, when Clara saw her too.  
"Doctor?" asked Clara, curious about why this goofball was acting so serious all of a sudden when he saw that woman. "Who is she?"  
He opened his mouth to respond, until a man came to grab her hand. A man holding a beautiful baby girl with dark blond curls tumbling down her tiny back. He recognized him too, a shadow of his former self.  
"Doctor?" Clara asked insistently, burningly curious, as new companions always are.  
"Rose Tyler," he breathed.  
And it was as if he had turned on a switch. His beautiful former companion zeroed in on him as he said her maiden name and she smiled.  
He didn't even have to say anything. Clever Rose already knew. She said a sentence to the man and took off in a sprint towards him. He couldn't help it, he ran towards her too. And when they finally met in the middle and hugged each other like the world was ending, the Doctor realized something.  
No matter how many regenerations he had undergone, the new things he learned, the changes he made, he was always the same man. And this man had never loved another like he loved his pink and yellow human, the Bad Wolf, Rose Marion Tyler.


	2. New Life

As the Doctor stood happily holding Rose Tyler to him, putting his nose into her wonderful golden hair, until she pulled away to look at him.  
She smiled at him, with her brilliant smile, "You changed your face again. And your wardrobe," she looked at him, and reached up to straighten his bowtie, "I like it, its cool."  
He smiled a great happy smile, and puffed up his chest proudly, "I know!" he replied, pulling her into another happy hug. He took a deep breath of her scent, and felt it enter his body and heart for the first time in so very long. It was almost as if her scent was the salve to mend his broken hearts. It reminded him of happy times, of chicken soup and tea when you're sick, stolen kisses in the rain, of acceptance despite mistakes, love without reservation. Her scent reminded him of home.  
Through all of that, he felt something tug at the edges of his happiness.

Something was wrong.  
He looked again to his former self, and he noticed things. His hair was graying and thinning, the laugh lines around his eyes were prominent even though his expression was tense. This man looked to be old, much older than the wonderful woman he held in his arms. The Doctor frowned and took Rose at arms length to look at her properly. She hadn't seemed to age one single day since he had seen her last, which puzzled him even more as his mind buzzed.

As her surveyed her, Clara took this moment to interject, "Doctor, hate to interrupt this reunion, but who is this?"

His eyebrows rose with another question that popped into his head, and he looked around again. He turned to Clara, index finger raised as if he had found a great epiphany,"Clara Oswald, this is my Rose Tyler. However, my Rose was sealed away in a parallel universe, with a metacrisis clone of my tenth regeneration," he replied, turning on his heel, quickly gesturing to the man behind them. "How is it that you're here?!"  
Rose smiled, a knowing smile that somewhat revealed how old she seemed to be, despite looking so young, "Cracks in the universe, Doctor. They were happening in all the universes. We found one where we were, appeared right in Torchwood one day. John and I, well, we never really felt right in that universe. So we packed our Sarah Jane up," she smiled even wider looking at the young toddler in the metacrisis's arms, "and we stepped through to this universe. We've been here for two years. Met Jack a few times, even worked for him a bit. We have a flat nearby if you'd like to see it," she trailed off confused by the distressed look on the Doctor's boyish face.

"You haven't aged! Not one day!" he exclaimed.

Her smile turned flirtatious, as her tongue poked out behind her teeth, "Why thank you Doctor, I have been using this fabulous moisturizer, that works wonders on-"

He cut her off, "Rose Tyler, how have you not aged one day since we last met?"

Her smile slowly disappeared, "We think it was Bad Wolf," she answered finally.

Clara decided now would be a good a time as any to stop them there. "Doctor, seriously, you have to answer me. Who is this girl? What exactly is 'Bad Wolf'? And why are you so giddy?" she asked incredulously. This was not the Doctor she knew. He only seemed truly responsive when he set a course on the TARDIS and announced they were going to have some fun. Often times when they were in the old spaceship he would read in the library, or tinker under the console. She never really got him to talk about himself, but she did hear fantastic stories of adventures he had with countless nameless companions.  
He turned to look at her strangely, "This is Rose Tyler, former companion of mine, shiver to my shake, and all that."

"Another one who got seduced by your snog box?" she responded smartly.  
The Doctor blushed as Rose burst into laughter.

She laughed so hard and so long, tears were brought to her eyes, "You could say that!" she responded through her laughter.

Suddenly they heard another shriek of laughter, a child's laugh. The Doctor looked at Rose, his eyes shining, "Is that...?"  
She smiled and nodded.  
He stepped towards his clone with the young child in his arms, as the baby girl squirmed and giggled and laughed.  
"Is she...yours?" he asked softly to his clone.  
John, his clone, looked strained as the other man stepped forward. He felt silly, this was himself after all, but somehow, even in his old age, John felt threatened. "Yes," he responded barely a whisper, hardly heard over the baby girl's happy shrieks.

Suddenly the girl squirmed out of John's arms, landing on the concrete, on her hands and feet, barely a scratch on her. Rose and John both moved forward to pick her up, but stood stock still as the girl slowly stood on wobbly legs on her own, giggling happily as she took her first steps toward the Doctor, her hands out, making grabbing motions with her hands.


End file.
